


Getting him out

by equisetum



Category: Supernatural
Genre: 15x20 didn't happen, Coda, Coda 15x19, Fix-It, Happy Ending, M/M, Team Free Will deserves better, screw you cw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-01
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:41:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27816250
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/equisetum/pseuds/equisetum
Summary: When Chuck lost his powers to Jack, they left him where he had fallen to the ground. Neither Dean nor Sam could find it in them to care about the crumpled pile of a man who used to be God. After Jack made Eileen and everyone else reappear, there was only one last person to get back. Cas.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
Kudos: 50





	Getting him out

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written any kind of fiction in years, so I'm a bit rusty, but I decided that 15x20 didn't happen and wanted to have a go at fixing it with a ficlet.

When Chuck lost his powers to Jack, they left him where he had fallen to the ground. Neither Dean nor Sam could find it in them to care about the crumpled pile of a man who used to be God. Not after everything he’d done to them, not after all the years he’d spent toying with them for his own amusement. Dean turned immediately and started to walk towards the Impala, Sam waited for Jack to catch up before they followed him. 

“So, now what? What do we do?” Sam asked.

“We get them back. Everybody who Chuck poofed away, we bring them back. Eileen, Garth, Charlie, Donna, Jody and the girls, everybody else who disappeared. Jack?”

“I’ll try” Jack snapped his fingers several times, the scrunched up expression on his face showing how hard he concentrated on channelling his new powers. Dean heard a happy bark coming from the backseat.

“Hey, buddy, I missed you” he said and pulled the dog into his arms, burying his face in Miracle’s fur. A faint buzzing and a sharp intake of breath made him look up. Sam had pulled his phone from his pocket typing rapidly.

“Eileen is back! She’s okay. Thank you, Jack” Sam said without looking up from the phone still typing.

“That’s great Sammy. She coming to meet you or are we gonna go pick her up on the way back to the bunker? Cause I guess you wanna see her?”

“Yeah I. Let’s, uh let’s go get her.”

When he saw Sam’s long arms wrap around Eileen, the joy and relief radiating out of Sam made Dean smile. It was the first time since Cas had been taken by the Empty that he had been able to smile, it was small and filled with pain, but it was still a smile. He was happy for his brother but seeing him reunite with Eileen just made him ache for Cas even more. He closed his eyes and sighed as Cas’ words echoed in his mind, he wondered if there would ever come a day where he wouldn’t hear them all day and dream about them all night. He sighed again.

“What are you thinking about, Dean?” Jack had moved into the front seat of the Impala, Miracle on his lap, so that Sam and Eileen could sit next to each other in the back.

“Cas.”

“Yeah, me too. We’ll get him out. Somehow.” Jack said as Sam and Eileen climbed into the car, signing to each other.

Four days later Dean could barely keep his eyes open as he forced himself to turn to the next page. He felt like he had searched every single book in the bunker’s library. He’d had help by the others, but Sam and Eileen had at least taken breaks. They’d gone to bed, they’d cooked in the kitchen, and they’d reminded him to eat. Hell, even Jack had taken breaks to go on walks with Miracle.

“Dean, come on, you need to sleep.”

“I’ve slept.”

“Three hours in that chair doesn’t count, besides you need to shower. You stink. And you need to drink something other than coffee. Go rest for a while.”

“Fine.” Dean grabbed the sandwich Sam had brought him and took a bite of it on the way to the shower. “But you better wake me up when I’ve had my four hours.”

Dean was dreaming of blue eyes being swallowed by black goo when Jack came storming into his room. 

“Dean! Dean! We think that maybe” he didn’t have time to say more because Dean had already left the room, running to the library.

“What the hell, Sam! You were supposed to wake me up two hours ago!” Dean barked. “And what is that?” he pointed to a stone slab in Eileen’s hand.

“It’s a record of the Empty. We found it down with the other stuff we have left from Metatron.”

“Metatron! That big bag of dicks!”

“Yeah, well, at least he was good at jutting down information. Chuck must have asked him to collect all he knew about the Empty.”

“Jack, you can read it, right?”

“Yes. We think that we can use it to open a portal into the Empty if we combine it with an old spell we found in one of Rowena’s books.”

“Awesome, anyone else of our old friends needed for this? Let’s just do it.”

“Dean, from what we’ve understood, only one person can go in after him. And it can’t be Jack because we need his powers to keep the portal open.”

“I was already planning on being the one doing it. It… it has to be me, Sam.”

“Okay, I figured you’d say that. It needs to be done in a place that is significant to you, significant to Cas.”

Dean closed his eyes. A place that was significant to him and Cas? They’d been through so much together. Heaven. Hell. Purgatory. There was one place his mind kept coming back to…

“The barn.”

“Sorry?”

“The barn where me and Bobby summoned Cas after he rescued me from hell.”

When the portal slowly opened, Dean turned around for one last look before he stepped into the Empty. He saw Sam, looking tense with his arm around Eileen, and Jack, flexing his hand to open the portal more so Dean could step through it. The last thing he saw was one of the old sigils Bobby had painted before they’d first met Cas and he’d introduced himself as an Angel of the Lord.

It was dark. So very dark. Dean tried to hold his hand in front of his face, but he could not see anything, he could just sense that it was there. He had always hated that feeling. Dean pressed the button on his flashlight but it did not turn on. Neither did his phone. He supposed that things generating light didn’t work in the Empty. He pocketed his phone and threw the useless flashlight to the side. It made a weird, clanky sound when it landed. Almost like he was in an endless cavern, he thought. 

“Cas?” Dean’s voice echoed and then he heard nothing at all. It was like the darkness surrounding him consumed all light and all sounds. With nothing but his intuition to guide him he picked a direction and started to walk.

Dean walked. It felt like he had walked for a week. Or it could be twenty minutes. It was hard to tell when he couldn’t rely on his senses.

Dean kept walking.

And walking.

Right as he started to fear that he would be stuck here forever, doomed to walk in the dark of the Empty for the rest of eternity, he sensed something different. It wasn’t like he could see anything, or hear anything, but everything just seemed a little bit less… compact. He picked up his speed. When the air around him went from pitch black to the deepest of grays, he started to run. He ran until he almost tripped over something on the ground. No, not something. Someone.

“Cas! Cas! Hey, Cas! Come on!”

“He can’t hear you.”

Dean turned around without letting go of Cas. “Meg.”

“I’m still not Meg. I was supposed to fall asleep when he got here. Castiel’s here and I’m not asleep. He’s the one sleeping, it’s not fair! I’m so tired!” she whined.

Dean looked down at Cas, he really did look like he was sleeping. Sleeping peacefully. Maybe he should just let him be? Dean shook that thought away as soon as it appeared, no damn it! He was going to be selfish for once in his life. There had to be a way… What if…

“Meg?” She glowered at him. “Sorry, sorry, didn’t mean to call you that. If I could help you to fall asleep, would you let us go then?”

“You’d help me? Why?”

“Because I know how much it sucks not being able to sleep. Everyone deserves to sleep.”

She looked like she was considering what he had said.

“He can’t leave as an angel” she said after a long pause. “His grace has to stay here.”

Dean didn’t hesitate. “Deal.” He pulled off his jacket and his flannel, folding them into a square and putting them on the ground. “You need a pillow if you’re gonna sleep.”

Meg-who-didn’t-want-to-be-called-Meg slowly got down and put her head on the improvised pillow. Dean looked at her and then at Cas and then at Meg again, before he bent down over Cas and carefully removed his trench coat. He put it over Meg, tucking her in.

“There. You need a blanket too. Nice and comfy, right?” 

Meg nodded, actually looking comfortable.

“Now close your eyes.”

Meg closed her eyes.

“Concentrate on your breathing. In and out. Nice and slow. In and out.”

Meg’s breathing slowed down.

“Good. There you go. Just like that. In and out. In and out…” Dean’s voice turned into a quiet whisper.

“Dean?”

“Cas! Cas, you’re awake!”

“Yes, Dean. What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to grip you tight and raise you from mmmph” before he could get the rest of the sentence out, Cas had put his hands around his neck and dragged Dean towards him and pulled him into a kiss. Dean was barely aware of the darkness disappearing around them, but all of a sudden, he was back on the dusty floor of the barn. He still didn’t stop kissing Cas. There was a noise in the background of Jack closing the portal. He still didn’t stop kissing Cas. He heard Sam clear his throat somewhere close by. He still didn’t stop kissing Cas. He faintly heard Sam say to the others that maybe they should wait by the car. He still didn’t stop kissing Cas. The footsteps from Sam, Eileen, and Jack grew fainter. He still didn’t stop kissing Cas. He didn’t know if he’d ever be able to stop kissing Cas now that he finally had started to kiss him. Eventually, they had to breathe. Dean leaned his forehead against Cas’.

“I love you too, angel. Of course I love you too.”


End file.
